Mtn_Infantry
AH enthusiast
Just got back from my first and an amazing hunt with Diekie Muller Hunting Safaris. All the booking/planning started in 2019. This trip was to be a friend/co-worker, his father, my father, and I over Father's Day 2020, but like most people it was postponed a year. Diekie ensured the trip would still happen over Father's Day so myself an my co-worker could both make it memorable for our father's (both of whom had ZERO intentions of hunting). I will say going into this, I never imagined I would hunt Africa. I always thought it would be too expensive, too time consuming, and that I'd be too preoccupied chasing North American Game, and boy was I wrong. To say I've been bitten by the bug was an understatement. I hadn't even gotten to Africa and was already planning trip #2. This post will be mainly my experiences and pictures since I can't speak for my friend and his father, but I know he enjoyed it enough he plans on going back to hunt with Diekie and Dawie after he pays for a diamond.
Had a little snafu the night before getting our Covid Test results. My father who's from the Northeast and vaccinated was in town all week visiting. We both took our tests together but he didn't get his covid test results with mine. Turned out, it was because his was positive. Couple phone calls later including to my neighbor (administrator of the hospital) and calling the lab to get them to rush retest of the original sample and we're told midday it was a false positive test, possibly because he was vaccinated. We board our Qatar Airlines flight from Houston late on 14-June and arrive at 0400 on 16-June at OR Tambo. My father and I went a little earlier than my buddy and were greeted by a driver from Afton Guest House who also did all of our gun permits. We drove back to Afton took a quick shower and were fed some breakfast. Ms. Elize at Afton had arranged a tour for us at my request which gave my dad about 4.5 hours to sleep, while I tried to do a little work from my laptop. Took our tour, relaxed around the fire at which time Dawie (Diekie's son) showed up. We enjoyed a great meal, several drinks, some talking around the fire before retiring around 2300. Dawie and I got up around 0300 to go meet my co-worker and his father, letting my dad get some extra beauty sleep. Get to the airport, greet each other, only to learn my co-worker's firearm somehow didn't make the transfer from DOHA to JNB. Decision is made, we're heading to the lodge and will figure out the gun once it actually arrives in country. Afton handled the Import and their person will call once it's secured, no sense waiting or worrying when we had no timeline.
Drive the 4ish hours north, stop and hour out from the lodge to enjoy a Black Label and take in some scenery before continuing onto the lodge. Arrive meet Diekie and the rest of the staff. Settle into our rooms, and grab a quick bite before heading out to the range to confirm zero on my rifle and let my co-worker get familiarized with the .375 he'll be borrowing for the time being. First shot is dead on, take another 3 or 4 after to confirm, head back to our rooms and take about a 2 hour nap (or work in my case, as I had a fire at work arise). By the time I shut the laptop we've got about 45 minutes before we head out and I decide to sling a few arrows out of my bow and Diekie joins me. First night out and my dad (health challenged), myself and Diekie are hunting 1 portion of the property. My co-worker, his father (in his late 70's and had a stroke several years ago) are hunting with Dawie on another side. Both my father and I are taking in all the sights, sounds, and variety of animals. As we're driving along both Diekie and I are spotting animals left and right while my dad is struggling to see them. We decide we're going to get off the truck and stretch our legs a bit, since I'm not one for hunting from trucks (but acknowledged I would be this hunt, or in a blind so my dad could accompany me). We stretch our legs, tire my dad out after about a 1/2 mile, bump a couple different herds of zebras and gemsbok with the wind swirling or get busted by the rutting impalas. We get back in the truck and are talking when I point out a couple sables to which I'm told they're young bulls. We take a turn and about 3/4 of a mile down see something's hind quarters in the road. We stop, look and Diekie says it's a sable bull, and from the color probably a mature one but we need to get a better look. I'm told that there's 1 really good one (42-43") and a couple in the 38-41" range. Get up closer and realize it's him, right about the time we hear a gunshot and the twack of the round impacting. We play cat and mouse for the next 2.5 hours, never able to get a real clean shot on him. Head back for some dinner and see my co-worker killed a Kudu (his #1 hitlist animal). We all congratulate him, hear the stories over a few beers/drinks, head to the fire to start grilling and share more stories.
Next morning 18-June, we wake up, have a light breakfast and head out. Driving around again and spot some golden wildebeest, tons of impala, several nice Kudu, Nyala, get into a lone buffalo bull that Diekie refers to as the trouble maker. Find the sable again, this time he's with 3 other younger bulls. Play cat and mouse with him/them for a couple hours dealing with the swirling wind. Around 8:30 we hear a shot which turns out they've got a Red Hartebeest down. Keep chasing the sable and come across a couple nice Gemsbok we decide to go after only to get busted by some go-away birds. Around 10:30 we head back to camp for brunch. We get back at camp, congratulate my buddy on another nice kill, crack a few beers open and let them harass me for being down 0:2. We nap for several hours (I'm on my computer working, and sling a few arrows with Diekie and Dawie) before we all head back out. Diekie is giving me a little crap about needing to get the money off my back when we spot the same Sable. We hop off the truck and start stalking him only for some young wildebeest to bust us. Get back to the truck make it about a 1/2 mile to an open area where we see a bunch of blesbok. I ask Diekie to walk me through judging them, and what to look for, as well as to relate it to some other animals. We're discussing the white and common blesbok when Diekie says there's a really good white one off to the side. I look at it, he explains what makes it better then some of the others, and for Limpopo thats a good animal. I'm looking them all over and notice in the bushes there are a few more. I mention there's another one that looks pretty similar to the white one, Diekie looks and agrees saying he's a touch heavier and longer. Decision is made, we're going going after one. Start stalking, sticks up (no shot), reposition (no shot). I think we repeated this 3 or 4 times before finally I'm presented with an real hard quartering away shot. I line up on the offside shoulder and send it. .375 hits home, sounds great, he runs off lagging behind the herd into the thick stuff. Walk up to where he was standing, can see where he jumped, but zero blood and zero hair. Diekie says he knows I hit him, he saw the dust come off his coat on impact. We grab stripe the dog who runs straight to the thick stuff and comes back. Diekie says go find it and and he takes off same direction he just came. We all head that way and he's piled up in some real tall grass below a knob-thorn tree. We get him out and start taking pictures and enjoy a cold celebratory beer.
We head back to the skinning shed to drop him off but not before encountering a couple of other buffalo on the property and a couple young Duiker and Steenbuck. After unloading the blesbok we head back out. Once again we find the younger Sable bulls and after another 30 minutes find the older bull we're looking for. We chase him the rest of the night for maybe an hour and a half getting busted by a nice nyala. We head back to the lodge for some Eland Tenderloins over the fire that from an old cow his daughter killed the weekend before. As we get back we learn my co-worker killed a nice Impala and I'm again reminded the score is 1:3. That night they get the call his gun had arrived. The talk it over and when his dad says the only way he'll shoot something is if its with that rifle since he's practiced with it, they decide to go get it first thing the following morning. As we get back we also meet Diekie's wife and daughter, and Dawie's girlfriend who've all come to join us in camp for Father's Day weekend.
19-June, Second full day of hunting. Typical morning; wake; light breakfast/coffee, and head out. Cruising around this morning we see a bunch of female warthogs with little ones, several young nyala, another really Kudu with several cows before we get on a bunch of impala in the area the sable have been frequenting. We chase the impala for some time, calling it quits without ever getting a decent shot at one of the rams. Head back to the truck where we're told my dad saw a sable cross the road. Diekie checks with the driver who says he didn't see it, only a black impala ram. We decided we'll still check the area incase it was a sable (my dad is blind in 1 eye and doesn't have the greatest vision in the other). You already know how this is going .... turns out the black thing he thought was a sable was the black impala. We get a good look at young black impala that will be really nice in another year or two and head back to the truck. We keep hunting, looking for the sable. Once again coming across the younger sable bulls and now spotting one of the other shooters. We keep looking eventually finding the other bull right around 10:30, in a totally different area of the property while looking for a Kudu. He's super skittish (probably from being chased for 2 full days at this point), and we opt to give him a break and go eat. Decision is made to come back to and try to find him that evening. Eat lunch, again take some shot with the bow. Diekie takes out a crossbow after I tell him my dad likes his crossbow and after sending a few my dad decides he'll hunt with the crossbow for something. That afternoon we find a couple of gemsbok bulls and decide to chase them around to no avail but make a stalk within 7-8 yards of 2 female warthogs with 6 little ones between them. It's cooled down enough now and we decide we're going to try and find the sable since I've now made-up my mind it's only going to be him. We get to about 200 yards, wind shifts and he books it almost across the property. We hurry back to the truck and head in that direction. Keep searching and searching travelling further and further away. At some point we decide to call it off and head to another portion of the property and look for some Kudu. We see several, but I'm looking for one with deep curls and a lot of ivory on the tips, or something with a lot of character. We again find some gemsbok, and decide we're going to move the truck around to get the wind in our favor and cut them off. As we're driving we catch the horn of a sable running. Diekie has the driver stop the truck, climbs onto the top of the cab to get a little higher and says that's him. We take the truck down a different road hoping to get infront of him and again use the wind. Lights fading fast, and the opportunity ends up presenting itself just as fast. He busts out of some thick bush about 60 yards from us. Sticks aren't even opened, Diekie says its him, I quickly grab the sticks, drop the model 70 into the rest using it as a monopod and place a frontal shot on him. He jumps, wheels, and takes off at a sprint 90 degrees from where he was facing into more thick crap and where the trouble buffalo likes to hangout. I some-how caught his horn as he button hooked and ran 140 degrees opposite where he was originally headed, almost circling back around to where we shot him. Again got zero blood or hair using the TBBC (kinda expected on a frontal shot), so we grabbed Stripe. Sunlight is fading fast, but Diekie trusted me when I said I saw a horn running in the bush and we don't bother following his tracks. We set the dog out were I last saw him (maybe 70 yards on and arc from the shot). Stripes runs over and starts growling about 30 yards away in some thick brush. He crashed about 35-40 yards from where I shot him, but had covered a couple hundred. We again crack open a couple Black Labels, head to the skinning shed, and meet-up with my co-worker and his dad who are just getting back from the range. They went through almost an entire box getting his Ruger No. 1 in .270 zeroed again. Everyone still gives me a hard time for being down 2:3 and them having taken a full day off. The next morning is Father's Day, so the plan is to head out in the morning then sit a waterhole starting around 9:30/10 and try to get my dad an impala, or warthog with his bow. More posts to follow.
Had a little snafu the night before getting our Covid Test results. My father who's from the Northeast and vaccinated was in town all week visiting. We both took our tests together but he didn't get his covid test results with mine. Turned out, it was because his was positive. Couple phone calls later including to my neighbor (administrator of the hospital) and calling the lab to get them to rush retest of the original sample and we're told midday it was a false positive test, possibly because he was vaccinated. We board our Qatar Airlines flight from Houston late on 14-June and arrive at 0400 on 16-June at OR Tambo. My father and I went a little earlier than my buddy and were greeted by a driver from Afton Guest House who also did all of our gun permits. We drove back to Afton took a quick shower and were fed some breakfast. Ms. Elize at Afton had arranged a tour for us at my request which gave my dad about 4.5 hours to sleep, while I tried to do a little work from my laptop. Took our tour, relaxed around the fire at which time Dawie (Diekie's son) showed up. We enjoyed a great meal, several drinks, some talking around the fire before retiring around 2300. Dawie and I got up around 0300 to go meet my co-worker and his father, letting my dad get some extra beauty sleep. Get to the airport, greet each other, only to learn my co-worker's firearm somehow didn't make the transfer from DOHA to JNB. Decision is made, we're heading to the lodge and will figure out the gun once it actually arrives in country. Afton handled the Import and their person will call once it's secured, no sense waiting or worrying when we had no timeline.
Drive the 4ish hours north, stop and hour out from the lodge to enjoy a Black Label and take in some scenery before continuing onto the lodge. Arrive meet Diekie and the rest of the staff. Settle into our rooms, and grab a quick bite before heading out to the range to confirm zero on my rifle and let my co-worker get familiarized with the .375 he'll be borrowing for the time being. First shot is dead on, take another 3 or 4 after to confirm, head back to our rooms and take about a 2 hour nap (or work in my case, as I had a fire at work arise). By the time I shut the laptop we've got about 45 minutes before we head out and I decide to sling a few arrows out of my bow and Diekie joins me. First night out and my dad (health challenged), myself and Diekie are hunting 1 portion of the property. My co-worker, his father (in his late 70's and had a stroke several years ago) are hunting with Dawie on another side. Both my father and I are taking in all the sights, sounds, and variety of animals. As we're driving along both Diekie and I are spotting animals left and right while my dad is struggling to see them. We decide we're going to get off the truck and stretch our legs a bit, since I'm not one for hunting from trucks (but acknowledged I would be this hunt, or in a blind so my dad could accompany me). We stretch our legs, tire my dad out after about a 1/2 mile, bump a couple different herds of zebras and gemsbok with the wind swirling or get busted by the rutting impalas. We get back in the truck and are talking when I point out a couple sables to which I'm told they're young bulls. We take a turn and about 3/4 of a mile down see something's hind quarters in the road. We stop, look and Diekie says it's a sable bull, and from the color probably a mature one but we need to get a better look. I'm told that there's 1 really good one (42-43") and a couple in the 38-41" range. Get up closer and realize it's him, right about the time we hear a gunshot and the twack of the round impacting. We play cat and mouse for the next 2.5 hours, never able to get a real clean shot on him. Head back for some dinner and see my co-worker killed a Kudu (his #1 hitlist animal). We all congratulate him, hear the stories over a few beers/drinks, head to the fire to start grilling and share more stories.
Next morning 18-June, we wake up, have a light breakfast and head out. Driving around again and spot some golden wildebeest, tons of impala, several nice Kudu, Nyala, get into a lone buffalo bull that Diekie refers to as the trouble maker. Find the sable again, this time he's with 3 other younger bulls. Play cat and mouse with him/them for a couple hours dealing with the swirling wind. Around 8:30 we hear a shot which turns out they've got a Red Hartebeest down. Keep chasing the sable and come across a couple nice Gemsbok we decide to go after only to get busted by some go-away birds. Around 10:30 we head back to camp for brunch. We get back at camp, congratulate my buddy on another nice kill, crack a few beers open and let them harass me for being down 0:2. We nap for several hours (I'm on my computer working, and sling a few arrows with Diekie and Dawie) before we all head back out. Diekie is giving me a little crap about needing to get the money off my back when we spot the same Sable. We hop off the truck and start stalking him only for some young wildebeest to bust us. Get back to the truck make it about a 1/2 mile to an open area where we see a bunch of blesbok. I ask Diekie to walk me through judging them, and what to look for, as well as to relate it to some other animals. We're discussing the white and common blesbok when Diekie says there's a really good white one off to the side. I look at it, he explains what makes it better then some of the others, and for Limpopo thats a good animal. I'm looking them all over and notice in the bushes there are a few more. I mention there's another one that looks pretty similar to the white one, Diekie looks and agrees saying he's a touch heavier and longer. Decision is made, we're going going after one. Start stalking, sticks up (no shot), reposition (no shot). I think we repeated this 3 or 4 times before finally I'm presented with an real hard quartering away shot. I line up on the offside shoulder and send it. .375 hits home, sounds great, he runs off lagging behind the herd into the thick stuff. Walk up to where he was standing, can see where he jumped, but zero blood and zero hair. Diekie says he knows I hit him, he saw the dust come off his coat on impact. We grab stripe the dog who runs straight to the thick stuff and comes back. Diekie says go find it and and he takes off same direction he just came. We all head that way and he's piled up in some real tall grass below a knob-thorn tree. We get him out and start taking pictures and enjoy a cold celebratory beer.
We head back to the skinning shed to drop him off but not before encountering a couple of other buffalo on the property and a couple young Duiker and Steenbuck. After unloading the blesbok we head back out. Once again we find the younger Sable bulls and after another 30 minutes find the older bull we're looking for. We chase him the rest of the night for maybe an hour and a half getting busted by a nice nyala. We head back to the lodge for some Eland Tenderloins over the fire that from an old cow his daughter killed the weekend before. As we get back we learn my co-worker killed a nice Impala and I'm again reminded the score is 1:3. That night they get the call his gun had arrived. The talk it over and when his dad says the only way he'll shoot something is if its with that rifle since he's practiced with it, they decide to go get it first thing the following morning. As we get back we also meet Diekie's wife and daughter, and Dawie's girlfriend who've all come to join us in camp for Father's Day weekend.
19-June, Second full day of hunting. Typical morning; wake; light breakfast/coffee, and head out. Cruising around this morning we see a bunch of female warthogs with little ones, several young nyala, another really Kudu with several cows before we get on a bunch of impala in the area the sable have been frequenting. We chase the impala for some time, calling it quits without ever getting a decent shot at one of the rams. Head back to the truck where we're told my dad saw a sable cross the road. Diekie checks with the driver who says he didn't see it, only a black impala ram. We decided we'll still check the area incase it was a sable (my dad is blind in 1 eye and doesn't have the greatest vision in the other). You already know how this is going .... turns out the black thing he thought was a sable was the black impala. We get a good look at young black impala that will be really nice in another year or two and head back to the truck. We keep hunting, looking for the sable. Once again coming across the younger sable bulls and now spotting one of the other shooters. We keep looking eventually finding the other bull right around 10:30, in a totally different area of the property while looking for a Kudu. He's super skittish (probably from being chased for 2 full days at this point), and we opt to give him a break and go eat. Decision is made to come back to and try to find him that evening. Eat lunch, again take some shot with the bow. Diekie takes out a crossbow after I tell him my dad likes his crossbow and after sending a few my dad decides he'll hunt with the crossbow for something. That afternoon we find a couple of gemsbok bulls and decide to chase them around to no avail but make a stalk within 7-8 yards of 2 female warthogs with 6 little ones between them. It's cooled down enough now and we decide we're going to try and find the sable since I've now made-up my mind it's only going to be him. We get to about 200 yards, wind shifts and he books it almost across the property. We hurry back to the truck and head in that direction. Keep searching and searching travelling further and further away. At some point we decide to call it off and head to another portion of the property and look for some Kudu. We see several, but I'm looking for one with deep curls and a lot of ivory on the tips, or something with a lot of character. We again find some gemsbok, and decide we're going to move the truck around to get the wind in our favor and cut them off. As we're driving we catch the horn of a sable running. Diekie has the driver stop the truck, climbs onto the top of the cab to get a little higher and says that's him. We take the truck down a different road hoping to get infront of him and again use the wind. Lights fading fast, and the opportunity ends up presenting itself just as fast. He busts out of some thick bush about 60 yards from us. Sticks aren't even opened, Diekie says its him, I quickly grab the sticks, drop the model 70 into the rest using it as a monopod and place a frontal shot on him. He jumps, wheels, and takes off at a sprint 90 degrees from where he was facing into more thick crap and where the trouble buffalo likes to hangout. I some-how caught his horn as he button hooked and ran 140 degrees opposite where he was originally headed, almost circling back around to where we shot him. Again got zero blood or hair using the TBBC (kinda expected on a frontal shot), so we grabbed Stripe. Sunlight is fading fast, but Diekie trusted me when I said I saw a horn running in the bush and we don't bother following his tracks. We set the dog out were I last saw him (maybe 70 yards on and arc from the shot). Stripes runs over and starts growling about 30 yards away in some thick brush. He crashed about 35-40 yards from where I shot him, but had covered a couple hundred. We again crack open a couple Black Labels, head to the skinning shed, and meet-up with my co-worker and his dad who are just getting back from the range. They went through almost an entire box getting his Ruger No. 1 in .270 zeroed again. Everyone still gives me a hard time for being down 2:3 and them having taken a full day off. The next morning is Father's Day, so the plan is to head out in the morning then sit a waterhole starting around 9:30/10 and try to get my dad an impala, or warthog with his bow. More posts to follow.
